I just finished a Kimber Desert Warrior for a female deputy who is a true shooting phenomenon. This was more than a light going-over but still short of a full custom. Some things weren’t really needed, or badly needed, or needed yet—like the barrel. This one fits in with my previous Kimber experience and is more than accurate enough with the factory barrel. One of the best groups I ever shot in fact, was with a Kimber and its original barrel. Also, fire control was left factory…. MIM and all, they have performed pretty well in my limited experience with Kimbers. Kimbers have their faults like most 1911’s but we figured, get the life out of these parts, which believe me, she will, and then change them.Grip safety and ambi thumb safety are factory. I did install a Shield Driver rear sight and my Extra Stout Plunger Tube—from there it was about ergonomics and function. Kim wanted the grip area as slender as possible so I took quite a bit off mainspring housing, necessitating the addition of “hips” to it. Reducing it this much gets into the MSH’s rail and the slot in the frame it rides in…. this gets a little messy, leaving and exposed, knife-edge of steel that would not actually cut the user but is a bit unsightly and damage-prone. The magwell got opened up; high grip front and back, and a dose of FRAG, with matching grips by VZ.The magwell, and the original lanyarded MSH for comparison, to show how much the girth has been reduced on the backside.

…. And, the MSH with hips added. I did the FRAG a little different on this one, the top surface is left with a mild texture instead of being smooth. This one does have just a tad more stiction for it.

Kim was in the 'hood and was here yesterday. She is truly a phenomenal shooter and we did some fine, fine adjustment on the sights. Honestly, not too many people are good enough to require and benefit from sight adjustments of .002-.003". Or, as we discussed, probably a good many people could be that good but don't realize this level is even attainable, so they don't attempt it. I'll just say that Kim is part of the solution to the problem of people not realizing their potential.

She shot several groups, and at 28 yards they were tight enough and consistent enough to be sure that, yes, they were 7/16" left! 28 yards = 1,000"; 7/16 = .437"; so, .437" / 1000" = .000437 error per inch, from the front sight to the target, but also from the front sight back to the rear sight, that being a 6.1" sight radius, so, .000437 X 6.1 = .0026. My sight pushing method allows for that precise adjustment amount to be accomplished, so we got her dialed right in.

The majority of my experience with police and guns and shooting and training is in the northern Illinois area. The extent to which it is taken seriously in the region probably has some connection to conditions emanating from the big city, and the frequency of "incidents". In the last fifteen years I've met many a hard-bitten survivor / gunfight victor, and they are not necessarily intimidating-looking, stern-faced men. The women get their share of nastiness on the street too and I've met some that were ready, gave it back, and came out the winner. Impressive stuff and impressive people who are able to keep it safe for the rest of us and still manage to be one of the rest of us off duty. I hope and expect it is this way all over the country; no doubt there will be pockets of extremes going both ways in terms of training and readiness but I will say that in the area I'm talking about, the ball was started rolling years ago by my good friend Jeff Chudwin. This movement over the years has snowballed and I have no doubt that many, many officers in the region and well beyond are alive today because of his efforts.

That has also been my experience with them. I live in Kimber country and work on a lot of them. People here love Kimbers. I pretty much know exactly what they need before I take them apart and start working on them. After they are tuned up, they shoot very good. As a matter of fact, one of the most accurate pistols I have ever worked on was also a Kimber.

So, JT, what say you then about all the Kimber MIM talk-- is it over blown? I've sure seen MIM hold up OK on Colts and Springfields, but less experience with Kimbers. Kimbers seem to get the most negative comments on the MIM components of all the outfits using the process.

I have not seen any problems with an unusual amount of parts breaking. If any, not any more than any of the other makes. I've seen some broken slide stops, etc. on Colts and I've seen them on Rock Islands and everything in between. With that being said, Kimber does have a few things it could do to help themselves out quite a bit while still using their same factory parts. Get rid of the barrel bump, tune and fit the extractor hook and things work pretty good in my experience. I'll even use the factory ignition parts with some tuning. I think there are some factory pistols that can shoot pretty darn good with just a little bit of attention.

A few updates on Kim’s Kimber after some 9000-plus rounds. I saw her this week while in her area for a class and asked to take a look / give it a good cleaning, just prior to her using it at the National Patrol Rifle Conference, which she won two eyars ago. Not "Won the ladies' division", just flat out won.

At this point it has all the original MIM fire control parts, safety and slide stop.

Feedramps need not be mirror polished or even super clean, they just need to have the right geometry….. Kimbers often don’t, this one didn’t and got recut.

The barrel on the inside. I see this on many barrels, mostly and more radical on Kimbers, and yet Kimber factory barrels are very, very accurate. This results from tool pressure while cutting the locking lugs after the bore is done (the flaws correspond to the these cuts on the outside).

Cleaned up it’s not so bad. Anyway these are less than .001 deep.

And, how to get a barrel that clean in just a few swipes: Chore Boy copper pan scrubbers on an Iosso Nylon brush.

Factory barrel is locking up on only one lug, this is typical of all or most brands and actually not much of an issue in .45. However when the time comes for a new barrel on this I will do the three-lug fit as I have done since the late 80’s. All three pull locking duty; again, not a dire necessity in .45 but it helps in terms of safety and especially longevity.

Modified MSH to allow going wider at the bottom. This allows a radical girth reduction—when you grab this Kimber your hand says, “wait, this can’t be a .45”. This was right before I got my first production run done of the MSH-F (fitable). I wanted the forward ledge for a great magwell and I wanted the MSH wider so when I inserted for the ledge I left it wide. Insert is T-slotted in, pinned with a drive screw, and silver soldered. It’s going nowhere.

The FRAG’d MSH with “hips”. Lots of holster wear on this gun but the paint is holding up decently considering that due to timing we decided to just paint over the existing Warrior color and bare steel where the gun had been worked on. I strongly prefer to paint over fresh Parkerizing.

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